


Finding a Fourth

by Chiomi



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Getting Together, Identity Reveal, Multi, Polyamory, Sedoretu, people secretly in the know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-07-28 20:06:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7654858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiomi/pseuds/Chiomi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marinette thought about how fast she and Alya had clicked and the way she felt at ease with Nino; about how Alya and Nino had real chemistry; about how Adrien would balance it perfectly, and bring his kindness and his perfect face and perfect hair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> . . . i just wanted [sedoretu](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Sedoretu) fic and couldn't find any.

“What moiety do you think Ladybug is?” Alya asked dreamily.

“Morning,” Adrien and Marinette chorused, both entirely too certain.

Nino arrived before they could question each other’s certainty, thankfully bringing a tray full of coffee. Early mornings were not anyone’s friend, but caffeine made meeting up at 7am to study almost bearable. Bearable, if not particularly productive. “What’s up?”

Alya took a deep drink of her coffee, sighed blissfully, and explained, “I’m gonna run a poll on the Ladyblog to see what moiety people think Ladybug and Chat Noir are.”

Nino settled in at the table, getting out his notes as if he actually expected them to be productive. He looked concerned. “Won’t that open up the ship war in the comments again?”

Alya scoffed. “That wasn’t a ship war, that was Sabrina and sock puppets. If Chloe wants to dream about shacking up with Ladybug, I guess it’s important that everyone else think she’s Evening, too?”

Marinette frowned. “Poor Sabrina.” She couldn’t understand Sabrina’s devotion to Chloe, but it had to be awful to have someone you were so obviously into be not just miraculously self-absorbed but also into someone else who’d fill the same spot you would in a sedoretu.

Adrien cleared his throat, and Marinette jumped. He asked, “So, who has the study guide?”

\--

One of the things about being Paris’ famous crime-fighting duo was that you were seen as a little unbalanced, a little incomplete. Despite the fact that fighting supervillains wasn’t a romantic endeavor at all, despite the fact that they always won. The base of the statue dedicated to them was wider than it needed to be, just in case some missing other half of their imagined foursome ever popped up.

Volpina would have been considered a perfect addition, an Evening woman with superpowers, and that might have contributed to why Marinette hated her on sight. She liked their team the way it was. Non-romantic. Trusting. Effective.

And then Chat was mad at her and it was finals, all at the same time. It was terrible.

\--

“No dating without a proper group,” her mother said, and it was one of few tacit acknowledgements of the fact that her and Tom’s marriage was a barely-legal half-marriage after their other halves had emigrated to Brazil. Neither of her parents expected her to be in a serious relationship that was headed towards marriage, not at her age, but they were more than aware of the pitfalls of falling for a single person and then trying to mash in other aspects that would always feel secondary. A sedoretu was meant to be an equal coming-together of all four parties. “Good habits make for good beginnings.”

“Oui, maman,” Marinette said, and thought about how fast she and Alya had clicked and the way she felt at ease with Nino; about how Alya and Nino had real chemistry; about how Adrien would balance it perfectly, and bring his kindness and his perfect face and perfect hair.

\--

Chat had mentioned his moiety almost before the name he chose to go by, and Marinette tried really hard not to care. It wasn’t ever going to be romantic between them. Especially because she already had an Evening crush. She’d considered lying to him about her moiety, but that just felt weird and wrong and one step too far, even for a secret identity.

He grinned his Cheshire Cat grin and said, “Purrfect, my Lady.”

\--

Marinette flopped back on Alya’s bed, wishing finals were over already. “Why can’t it be summer already?”

Alya leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips, then straightened. “Three more days.”

Marinette blinked at Alya’s ceiling, then pressed her lips together as her face heated up. Alya’s lips were really soft. She propped herself up on her elbows to get a good look at Alya, who was staring at her notes over-intently, a blush on her cheeks. It had been unspoken between them since they exchanged gifts on Valentine’s Day. “You know my parents’ attitude,” Marinette said carefully.

Alya looked up and smiled crookedly. “Then the three of us should ask Adrien out after finals, right?”

Marinette squirmed around until she was in a position to throw herself at Alya, wrapping her in a hug and burying her face in her neck. Alya hugged her back.

They ended up kissing once more before they had to get back to studying.

\--

The only reason they caught Adrien on the last day of school was Alya’s speed as a test-taker. She’d finished right after Adrien and gone after him, and Marinette chewed her lip and tried not to worry about it, to worry about the test instead. She finished before Nino, and then waited for him in the hall.

He lit up when he saw her. “Freedom, right?”

She grinned. “Yep! No more school until September.” Tentatively, she held out a hand.

Nino took it, smiling still, and together they walked towards the entrance. “I think this’ll be good, right? I mean, I know Alya and I aren’t superheroes, but we’re pretty awesome in our own ways, and we can keep your secret.”

“Of course you’re awesome,” Marinette said, and then the import of his statement caught up with her. She stopped in the hallway, dragging Nino to a stop too with their joined hands. There were still classes taking tests, so her voice came out as a semi-hysterical high-pitched whisper. “You know!?”

Nino turned to look at her, and reached up to grab his hat and stick it on her head. “Well, yeah. I don’t know if Alya does - it seemed rude to talk about it without you and Adrien there - but I’ve known you for ages, so I’ve known for a while. You’ve got tells, Mari.”

“Oh,” Marinette said, and swallowed hard. She reached up to adjust Nino’s hat to sit more securely on her head. If Nino knew, who else did? Most of their class had been together forever. But if other people had known, they’d have let it slip as akuma, right? If not in their attacks, then letting Hawkmoth know. But Hawkmoth hadn’t targeted her as a civilian yet, so he couldn’t know. So this was probably, maybe, hopefully just Nino being Nino.

Nino smiled gently. “Can we go ask out Adrien now?”

Marinette blinked. “Right.” She giggled. “I didn’t think anything could distract me from that!”

They walked out into the sun, and Alya and Adrien were standing together at the base of the stairs. They both turned to look up at Marinette and Nino. Alya smiled, but Adrien sort of gaped. Which - oops, they probably did look a little sacrilegious if you didn’t know what was up. Oh, well.

“Finally,” Alya said as they joined them. “Anyway, Adrien, now that everyone’s here, we had something we wanted to ask you.”

Adrien blinked at them. “All of you?”

“Yeah, dude,” Nino said, absolutely deadpan. “We’ve got a nefarious plan to date you. You on board?”

Adrien blinked, and then started to smile, slow and sweet as honey. “I’d like that very much.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This doesn't count as a real sequel, but I was feeling blah and wanted to write the reveal conversation here.

Adrien felt himself turning bright red in the kind of blush stylists and photographers both yelled at him for because it was so hard to hide.

Alya grinned at him and took Marinette's hand, lacing their fingers together the way Marinette and Nino weren't. Adrien blinked at them, kind of dazzled. It wasn't that he hadn't thought about dating, hadn't thought about his friends. But he'd never _expected_ \- and some part of him had always hoped Ladybug - but he hadn't let himself even think much about Marinette because she was cute but she was Morning -

Plagg bit his chest, and Adrien managed through long practice to turn his reactive flinch into a slight twitch. His friends were standing in front of him wanting to _date_ him and he was just spacing out. Adrien managed to nod. "It's a good plan," he squeaked out.

Nino's slightly worried face relaxed into a smile. "Awesome, man. Hey, Marinette, can we go to your house to celebrate?"

There was a ghost of stress over the word celebrate that worried Adrien - that worried Marinette, too, evidently, from the way she bit her lip. But then Marinette smiled, too, and said, "I see how it is. You just want to date me for the snacks."

A chill ran down Adrien's spine. He'd heard his dad say often enough to Natalie and Gorilla that they'd only married him for the money and they'd stay for it, too. And of course it wasn't - this wasn't anything like that. Nino would never. None of them would ever. The words just sounded so much like - but there was no undercurrent of tension and there were smiles on everyone's face as Nino said, "Darn, caught me already. I was hoping I'd at least get some croissants before you figured it out."

Marinette giggled, the sort of bright, happy sound that would positively shatter Adrien's house, and said, "Well, that can probably be arranged."

Alya rolled her eyes at them. "Come on."

-

Marinette's house was just as warm and welcoming as Adrien remembered it, but somehow moreso now that he was there attached to Marinette instead of just her classmate. Marinette's mom loaded them up with baked goods before they could make it upstairs, and it made Adrien feel kind of warm and fuzzy. Everything smelled amazing. They settled on the floor of Marinette's room in a circle so they were all facing each other. It was nice, being together with all of them with, like, intent other than just hanging out. They were starting a relationship! It was going to be awesome.

Nino poked at the selection of macarons. "Okay, which of you is going first for identity reveals? I feel like honesty is probably the best policy to make this work."

"What?" Adrien panicked. He'd been so careful! Nino couldn't know! And now, telling them - Ladybug would be _so pissed_ if he revealed his identity to anyone, even if she found out Nino knew because it wouldn't matter that Adrien hadn't told him, it still put him in danger.

"Um, I -" Marinette was turning red for some reason, too.

Alya just looked confused.

Nino held up one of the macarons, looking amused. "Oh, hey, Marinette, is this strawberry or raspberry?"

"I'm Ladybug!" she burst out, then buried her face in her hands. "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you Alya, no one was supposed to know. Nino just figured it out!"

Alya's jaw dropped open, and Adrien knew he was gaping, too. Marinette was Ladybug? Shy, stuttering Marinette was his incredible, inimitable Ladybug?

The silence stretched.

Marinette mumbled, "Strawberry."

"Awesome," Nino said, and popped the macaron into his mouth. He wiped his hand on his pants and then patted Marinette on the knee. "I'm proud of you for going first. But then, our boy always follows your lead, right?" Nino raised an eyebrow at Adrien, who was reduced to wordless sputtering.

Alya narrowed her eyes at them. "The two of you are messing with us, right?"

Marinette, hands still over her face, shook her head.

Adrien managed to stop sputtering and swallowed hard. His throat clicked like a hammer coming down on an empty chamber. "Uh. I'm Chat Noir."

Plagg phased out of Adrien's shirt. "This means I can come out now, right? Because I smell warm cheese."


End file.
